The capitals of Kyrgyzstan and Macedonia are among the cheapest cities worldwide for expatriates, Mercer’s latest cost of living survey showed. 

The survey is aimed at helping multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. Mercer uses New York as the base city, against which the costs of more than 200 items in each other city — including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment — are compared. 

Bishkek and Skopje came in at 206th (tied with the Namibian capital Windhoek) and 208th place respectively on the poll of 209 countries, ahead of only Tunis. 

Also among the cheapest cities on the consultancy’s annual ranking were the three Caucasian capitals, Tbilisi (204), Yerevan (195) and Baku (182). Alongside them were several cities from the Southeast Europe region: Sarajevo (202), Belgrade (198), Tirana (189), Sofia (184) and Bucharest (181). 

No East European cities were among the top 10, with Mercer finding the most expensive city from the region to be Moscow (in 14th place), followed by Russia’s second city St Petersburg (36th) and the Turkmen capital Ashgabat (57th). 

“As a result of local currencies depreciating against the US dollar, some cities in Eastern and Central Europe, including Prague (132) and Budapest (176) fell in the ranking,” Mercer noted. However, it pointed out that other cities such as Minsk (200) and Kiev (163) improved their positions. 

Luanda topped the list, with the high costs of living in the capital of oil-rich Angola pushed up by the cost of both goods and security. Otherwise the top of the list was dominated by Asian and European cities.